I'll just post this again since I agree with the majority the points made

Spoiler

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on September 19, 2015, 08:20:52 AM

Quote from: guts on September 19, 2015, 08:11:54 AM

I'll just post this again since I agree with the majority the points made

Spoiler

They never  evacuated the school because they though he had a hoax bomb. He pulled a big digital clock out of its case and put it in a pencil box that looks like an attache case you see used for bombs and money in old movies.

that doesn't make it any better, if that's the case then it seems like they only had him arrested in spite

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on September 19, 2015, 08:36:42 AM

Quote from: guts on September 19, 2015, 08:35:39 AM

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on September 19, 2015, 08:20:52 AM

Quote from: guts on September 19, 2015, 08:11:54 AM

I'll just post this again since I agree with the majority the points made

Spoiler

They never  evacuated the school because they though he had a hoax bomb. He pulled a big digital clock out of its case and put it in a pencil box that looks like an attache case you see used for bombs and money in old movies.

that doesn't make it any better, if that's the case then it seems like they only had him arrested in spite

Out of spite for making a fake bomb and bringing it to school?

Yes, I mean whilst their initial suspicions are fairly justified considering previous attack on schools in the US but I think to have him arrested is taking it too far. Did they not establish that it was a clock and/or safe upon inspection in the principles office? Did he go around waving that it was a bomb? No

Really it boils down to: whoever called the police shouldn't have done, but the kid was an idiot for bringing it into school in the first place.

So where were his parents in all of this?

I don't give a fuck what you say, that looks dodgy as fuck.

Do I immediately get invited to the White House too if I make a suitcase bom- er clock?

If we accept the story about “inventing” an alarm clock is made up, as I think I’ve made a pretty good case for, it’s fair to wonder what other parts of the story might be made up, not reported factually by the media, or at least, exaggerated.

I refer back again to this YouTube video interview with Ahmed. He explains that he closed up the box with a piece of cord because he didn’t want it to look suspicious. I’m curious, why would “looking suspicious” have even crossed his mind before this whole event unfolded, if he was truly showing off a hobby project, something so innocuous as an alarm clock. Why did he choose a pencil box, one that looks like a miniature briefcase no less, as an enclosure for a clock? It’s awful hard to see the clock with the case closed. On the other hand, with the case open, it’s awful dangerous to have an exposed power transformer sitting near the snooze button (unless, perhaps his invention was to stop serial-snooze-button pressers by giving them a dangerous electrical shock!)

So again, I’m pointing all this out – about the specifics of the clock – not to pick on the poor kid. I’m picking on us, our culture, and our media. I don’t even care about the clock itself at this point.

If we stop and think – was it really such a ridiculous reaction from the teacher and the police in the first place? How many school shootings and incidents of violence have we had, where we hear afterwards “this could have been prevented, if only we paid more attention to the signs!” Teachers are taught to be suspicious and vigilant. Ahmed wasn’t accused of making a bomb – he was accused of making a look-alike, a hoax. And be honest with yourself, a big red digital display with a bunch of loose wires in a brief-case looking box is awful like a Hollywood-style representation of a bomb. Everyone jumped to play the race and religion cards and try and paint the teachers and police as idiots and bigots, but in my mind, they were probably acting responsibly and erring on the side of caution to protect the rest of their students, just in case. “This wouldn’t have happened if Ahmed were white,” they say. We’re supposed to be sensitive to school violence, but apparently religious and racial sensitivity trumps that. At least we have another clue about how the sensitivity and moral outrage pecking order lies.

Because, is it possible, that maybe, just maybe, this was actually a hoax bomb? A silly prank that was taken the wrong way? That the media then ran with, and everyone else got carried away? Maybe there wasn’t even any racial or religious bias on the parts of the teachers and police.